Reliability most highly rated quality in mobile applications

Posted by KingEclient on 28 February, 2016

Have you ever walked into a place where you just couldn’t be certain that you were going to get good service? This can also happen in the online world, where, according to this ranking, reliability is what matters most to mobile application users.

The first few moments in an application are absolutely crucial, those 60 seconds when users connect and get that feeling of whether it’s going to be easy to use the application and whether they are going to get what they want. This is what we call reliability. It’s a concept that, with an acceptance factor of 66.5%, came out top in the Mobile User Experience (MUX) Champions League held at the recent Mobile World Congress.

What are app users’ main concerns?

Reliability, honesty, usefulness and speed: these were the features most highly rated by the mobile application users who took part in our competition. The contest involved pitting the following qualities against each other and asking the user to pick a winner, “match” by “match” in nine consecutive rounds.

Reliability

Gives me the feeling that it’s going to work and I will be able to achieve my objectives.

Precision

Doesn’t distract me with publicity or content I don’t want.

Speed

The response is quick, both in terms of technology and the process itself.

Usefulness

The content and functionalities offered are really useful.

Navigation

It’s easy to move around the application and find what I am looking for.

Honesty

It has no misleading advertising and unreliable content and meets my expectations.

Understanding

The content can be understood easily.

Image

The graphic design is pleasant and I like the look.

Personalization

It offers me content specially adapted to my needs.

Socialization

I can share information and experiences with my social networks.

Main conclusions

Users want the application to live up their expectations; the first few moments are crucial.

Speed continues to be a must; long waiting periods and processes must be avoided at all costs.

There were strong objections to any type of content or publicity which may be misleading or downright false. This idea had an acceptance rate of 61%

There were signs of a degree of user maturity in concepts closely related to usability. The user is increasingly used to navigating and interacting with online platforms and feels more confident. The fact that these concepts were lower rated is not because they are unimportant but because they are now considered minimum requirements for all platforms.

Personalization is not badly rated, but not given too high a rating when compared with other concepts.

Simple, minimalist designs seem to be the way forward. The low rating of graphic design confirms the acceptance of the current trends of Flat Design and Material Design. These are simple, minimalist designs fully focused on making user experience easier and more intuitive. Users’ attitudes towards design should not be considered as an indication they don’t think design is important but rather evidence that designers will have their work cut out creating designs which are fully focused on results.

Socialization finds itself at the bottom of the table. The study focused on the concept of the application itself, seen as stand-alone and geared towards achieving its own objectives. In this sense, the whole concept of social networks and collaborative platforms wasn’t really a main focus of the study.